Sometimes you do have to take some random quests, because the plot will move you along progressively farther and farther away star systems, requiring periodic upgrades of your "field drive," the key component to opening gates in hyperspace that allow you to jump from system to system. What looks like a simple recovery quest turns into a multi-stage mini-adventure, and by the time you're done with the latest development, you're hooked into the plot and want to find out more.Unlike Freelancer, DS1 doesn't lock you into one area where you have to assassinate some guy wandering around space or deliver a package from point A to point B until you gain an arbitrary amount of experience points, leading to the same pattern in the next solar system. And the main plot will weave these pre-rendered cutscenes in with in-game cutscenes and player actions, all woven together smoothly. There is tons of this stuff - I don't know how Ascaron fits everything into one disk. The game benefits greatly from cutscenes containing good voice acting, dialog and animation. But as we learn how his father died and how the DarkStar One itself is tied to a larger plot with sinister overtones, the game begins to blossom. It starts out slowly, with the main character Kayron inheriting an experimental ship from his recently deceased father. While DS1 has its problems, it manages a balance between guiding the player through a complex story and giving them freedom to wander around.
X2: The Threat too often devolved into being an energy cell merchant, and its story wasn't particularly well told, or its characters very interesting. MegaTraveller 2 was perhaps too big of a game for its own good. Privateer had some tedious trade routes and some vicious spikes in difficulty.
Ascaron Entertainment, the guys mostly known for Port Royale and Sacred, have crafted an action adventure space game that puts previous watermarks to the test.ĭS1, due in North America in August, has elements of all the games I've described above, but it also avoids many of their pitfalls. Well, I've been there before, right? But, after several straight days of plowing through DS1, I'm here to tell you that it's turning out to be the best game of its type that I've played. I had no particular expectations - it was a preview build, in German with English subtitles, of a game that looked like Freelancer. I was starting to think that nostalgia had made Privateer seem better than it was. Then came X: Beyond the Frontier and its sequels, and the long-awaited Freelancer. Another Privateer came out, but it was an FMV adventure, and not particularly good. Unfortunately, this type of action adventure game never really took off. You could be a mercenary, trader, or bounty hunter, or a combination thereof. While not as ambitious as MegaTraveller 2, it had its own charms. Now this was a cool game a galaxy so big that you actually had to hunt down the beginning of the storyline. Being based in space allowed for some unique tactical options, but it wasn't reinventing any wheels. I suppose my affection for space-based action adventure games started with Wing Commander, but WC was, at its core, a flight simulator.
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